South Africans Awaiting Fate

The referendum on the reform process in South Africa could have such enormous political consequences-civil war, for one-that it seems almost trivial to discuss its impact on sports.

Yet, among those waiting most anxiously for Wednesday`s announcement of the referendum`s results are South Africa`s athletes.

Should a majority vote against continuing the reforms aimed at giving non-whites a role in running the country, it probably would lead to new ostracism of South African athletes, who are hoping to make their Olympic return at Barcelona this summer.

South Africa`s 21-year ban from membership in the International Olympic Committee ended only last July, after the last of its segregationist

(apartheid) laws were repealed. Since then, South Africa has also regained membership in many international sports federations and sent a team to last September`s World Gymnastics Championships in Indianapolis.

In readmitting South Africa, which has not competed in an Olympics since 1960, the IOC insisted it would monitor the situation to ensure that sport there became truly non-racial.

In its statement authorizing the readmission, the IOC said it was,

``. . . subject to review . . . in light of determining events relating to sport in South Africa.``

Although the IOC has stuck to its position of not commenting on the hypothetical, the referendum is obviously such a ``determining event.`` It is almost inconceivable that South Africa would be able to remain active on the world`s playing fields if the country`s 3.3 million white voters reject continued reform.

``The IOC cannot solve the political issues. We can only work to solve sports issues,`` said Anita DeFrantz, the United States` IOC member. ``If political issues work to destroy progress in the sports realm, I imagine that South Africa will not be back in the Olympic movement.``

The irony, of course, is that those athletes who stand to benefit the most from worldwide exposure, the South African blacks, could not vote in the referendum because blacks have no voting rights as yet.

The uncertainty created by the referendum has already deprived some of those athletes-plus whites like Zola Budd-Pieterse and Elena Meyer-of a chance to make South Africa`s return in track and field at Saturday`s World Cross-Country Championships in Boston.

Ten days ago, track`s world governing body, the International Amateur Athletic Federation, voted for provisional reinstatement of South Africa. That decision, as expected, was a quid pro quo for the naming of IAAF President Primo Nebiolo as a member-at-large of the IOC. Not coincidentally, the reinstatement and the naming of Nebiolo were announced at IOC headquarters the same weekend.

Also caught in the doubts about South Africa`s future is emigre marathoner Mark Plaatjes, the former North Shore resident now living in Boulder, Colo.

Because he is one year shy of obtaining his U.S. citizenship, Plaatjes needs a waiver of the IAAF`s citizenship rules to compete in both the U.S. Olympic marathon trials April 11 and, if he makes the team, to compete in the Olympics.

Plaatjes, the fastest U.S. marathoner in 1991, has been told such a waiver is partly contingent on results of the referendum. He has not been told, however, what his chances of getting the waiver are, so he cannot yet commit to running the Olympic trials.

``If they tell me it`s 70 percent certain, I`ll run the trials,`` he said. ``If not, I`ll run the London Marathon (the same weekend).``

Off the hustings: Anita DeFrantz said Tuesday she would not be a candidate for the presidency of the U.S. Olympic Committee in October`s election to succeed interim President William J. Hybl. DeFrantz, president of the Amateur Athletic Federation of Los Angeles, had previously expressed interest in the position.

Beat the clock: Cyclist Greg LeMond has two objectives this year: the Tour de France in July and an attempt to break the world record for kilometers covered in an hour (51.151 kilometers, or 31.784 miles), set by Italy`s Francesco Moser at Mexico City in 1984. LeMond`s attempt is also planned for the thin air of Mexico City in late August or early September.

After finishing a game but disappointed seventh in the 1991 Tour de France, LeMond has also been racing constantly since late January in order to regain the form that won three Tours.